Intro – 00:00:04: Welcome to the Lodge Second podcast offered by Revinate, the podcast the place we focus on how resort know-how shapes each second of the hotelier’s expertise. Tune in as we discover the cutting-edge know-how remodeling the hospitality business and listen to from specialists and visionaries shaping the way forward for visitor experiences. Whether or not you’re a hotelier or a tech fanatic, you’re in the best place. Let’s dive in and uncover how we will elevate the artwork of hospitality collectively.
Karen Stephens- 00:00:37: Whats up, and welcome to the Lodge Second podcast. I’m your host, Karen Stephens, the Chief Advertising and marketing Officer of Revinate. On right now’s episode of Lodge Second, we’re thrilled to have Bree Brostko. Bree is at the moment serving because the Chief Working Officer and Head of Model Technique at Retro Hospitality. With a sturdy background in advertising and communications, Bree excels in forging strategic partnerships and driving model success. Her profession consists of notable roles corresponding to Chief Advertising and marketing Officer at Retro Hospitality, Vice President of Communications on the Resort Lodge Affiliation, and Managing Director at Kindred Resorts & Inns. Acknowledged as one of many prime 25 most extraordinary minds in gross sales, advertising, and income optimization by HSMAI, Bree combines her ardour for journey with a eager experience in stakeholder engagement and model technique. I’ve to say what I really like a lot about this dialog — you’ll see that we kick this off and I requested Bree about considered one of her journey experiences that form of knowledgeable her profession and her strategy right now. And she or he tells a narrative concerning the Grand Lodge in Mackinac Island. And it’s actually a enjoyable dialog concerning the true essence of name loyalty. So prospects who’re so loyal to the model that they wish to present up on closing weekend and truly assist the resort shutter its doorways for the season. In order that’s an effective way to kick this off. And I feel it additionally tells a bit bit about as a advertising skilled and a model strategist, and that’s actually what Bree’s profession is in. She has a superb means of telling tales. And that’s clear in the best way that she talks to me and in addition in the best way that she talks about Retro hospitality and the distinctive experiences and model identification of all of the resorts that she represents. So we’ve got a good time understanding how she thinks about bringing new resorts on-line, and the way to determine that technique, and promote that resort throughout the client base. The opposite factor that we talked about is the truth that electronic mail isn’t lifeless. So thanks, Bree. She offers a bit little bit of a plug to Revinate, which we positively admire. However actually what she’s specializing in is simply letting all people know that electronic mail continues to be her only channel with regards to cross-promoting and getting her visitors enthusiastic about their keep. She makes a remark concerning the reality, which I 100% agree with, that the reserving expertise and the keep expertise actually picks up from the affirmation electronic mail. So you may hear her discuss how her strategy to that carries on. After which the very last thing to say, Bree and I’ve one thing in widespread. We each form of moved from one function to the opposite. So I used to be the Chief Income Officer. Now I’m Chief Advertising and marketing Officer. She form of went the opposite path — Chief Advertising and marketing Officer, now as a Chief Working Officer. However I really like the truth that she actually hits on the significance of understanding on the finish of the day, it doesn’t matter what function you’re in, in hospitality, it’s important to perceive your numbers and the way that impacts your entire strategic stakeholders within the enterprise at massive. So actually nice dialog with Bree. I hope you get pleasure from it. And right here you go. I offer you Bree.
Welcome to the podcast, Bree. It’s good to have you ever right here.
Bree Brostko – 00:03:29: Thanks a lot for inviting me, Karen. I’m trying ahead to talking with you.
Karen Stephens – 00:03:32: To heat us up, I needed to ask you, as a result of I had a have a look at your web site and your expertise, and I do know you’ve been within the business for some time. And so many people which have journey and hospitality experiences have journey recollections that inform our work right now. So to heat us up, is there a memorable journey expertise that has notably influenced your perspective on what it means to construct a resort model that visitors love?
Bree Brostko – 00:03:55: What an incredible query. Sure. I imply, one definitely stands out in my thoughts. Years in the past, I ran a advertising and PR co-op for unbiased boutique resorts. And we had about 63 properties all through the USA. And so they had been all extremely particular. However one which was additional particular in my coronary heart known as the Grand Lodge on Mackinac Island. I don’t know if you understand that property, nevertheless it’s one of many stunning form of previous wooden Grand Dame resorts from the railroad period. And on Mackinac, no vehicles, simply horse-drawn carriages. And so I labored fairly intently with them once they had been owned by the Muster household and had this fabulous DOS, Annie. And the fascinating factor concerning the Grand is that every room could be very completely different. It’s a Dorothy Draper design type. And so visitors actually wish to see the completely different rooms as a result of one room kind will not be like the opposite varieties. I imply, we actually gave themselves complications over having so many various room varieties. However the resort, it’s seasonal. And since it’s seasonal and since it has such a devoted fan base, it’s mainly 99 to 100% occupancy all the time it’s open. So visitors don’t have the chance to peek in one other room as a result of mainly every thing’s occupied the entire season. And so type of to deal with that subject and to fill some shoulders — so, in the direction of form of the tip of the season, October, when it’s getting colder, they’ve extra occupancy. And so the resort had began this concept referred to as Closing Weekend. And the aim was that they might invite their devoted followers and visitors and open up the doorways to the entire rooms. So that you come and keep for the weekend and you may peek into the entire rooms that you just hadn’t been capable of see and see all of the completely different room varieties, after which assist the resort shut its doorways for the season. And so it was this wonderful concept. The fascinating factor that occurred is that that closing weekend turned so standard that now that’s additionally bought out. So you may’t actually see the rooms, however Annie Farrell, the DOS, had invited me to Mackinac Island to expertise this closing weekend. And it is a lengthy story to get to your level of a very distinctive expertise. It was so stunning to be there as a result of actually, if you consider it, the closing of a resort is actually simply a variety of work. There’s so many issues that have to be accomplished and the way the resort will get shuttered for the season, however they made it this stunning expertise for the visitors. And so forth the final day, on the cut-off date, everybody goes out to the porch. It’s the longest porch, I feel, on the planet. The longest entrance porch on the planet. And all of the visitors stand by the chairs. And when somebody publicizes that we’re closing, the visitors all choose up chairs and transfer them inside, you stroll by way of the resort, and visitors are taking sheets and draping them over furnishings. And it’s so outstanding. And I feel such an fascinating instance of actually loyal visitors and activations. And the truth that when visitors are type of drawn to a property or an expertise, like they wish to be there for the entire expertise. And so I take into consideration that a variety of how one can give type of possibly extra uncommon hospitality experiences, however that individuals may be in search of that as a result of they wish to have an excellent deeper connection to the property.
Karen Stephens – 00:07:04: I really like that. I imply, you get folks engaged. And on prime of that, all people’s obtained points with employees. You get folks doing all of the closing. They’re loving it, and so they’re closing the resort. I imply, that’s implausible. Yeah. In order that’s an incredible segue into speaking about what you do right now. So I discussed that you just’re the Chief Working Officer of Retro Hospitality. Are you able to inform us a bit bit about Retro Hospitality?
Bree Brostko – 00:07:26: Completely. So Retro is a boutique hospitality administration agency primarily based in Richmond, Virginia. And proper now we’ve got 5 properties underneath administration and one other two in growth. We have now one scheduled to open this fall, and one scheduled for spring 2025. Retro is we’re very proud that we’re the biggest operator of boutique resorts within the state of Virginia. So I’m primarily based in New York Metropolis, however the administration agency is predicated in Richmond, and we’ve got an incredible presence all through the Commonwealth. Retro actually focuses on experiential properties. And really, qweryi][ all of our properties are adaptive reuse. So that’s a special niche and value proposition for Retro is working with owners and developers on adaptive reuse properties and helping them tell that story within the marketplace.
Karen Stephens – 00:08:15: And can you tell me what is adaptive reuse?
Bree Brostko – 00:08:18: Absolutely. So adaptive reuse is a, I don’t know if it’s an architectural term or a construction term, but basically it’s the idea of taking an existing building or structure and converting it to something else.
Karen Stephens – 00:08:31: Like a historic property and then…
Bree Brostko – 00:08:33: Exactly. So our owners tend to be sometimes developers, but often just people who maybe have a vision and a building that they think would make an interesting hotel. And so we have former department stores as hotels, former hospitals as hotels, a former — in Danville, Virginia, the former location of the local newspaper, the newspaper offices converted to a hotel. And so what’s really interesting about that is that you’re starting from a really interesting storytelling point. You have all of that history to pull on, and it also provides some really interesting hospitality, design challenges. You’re going into a historic building. Often there’s historic tax credits associated. And so you need to leave certain elements in place or work around something, which would be much different if you were doing sort of a new construction build.
Karen Stephens – 00:09:22: Yeah, this is so fascinating. So I love this idea because when I think of boutique hotels, you think about intimate, fashionable, sophisticated spaces. So here you have these historic buildings or buildings that are being repurposed. So how do you think of that as the Chief Operating Officer? How do you then transform that hotel? And how do you think about brand identity? So can you just give me an example of maybe one of those hotels that you converted in your approach there? Because that is just fascinating.
Bree Brostko – 00:09:50: Absolutely. One that I think is particularly interesting is slated to open next spring, summer 2025. And it’s in a little town called Bedford, Virginia. And this is a renovated school building, kind of that 1920s style with like large hallways. And this hotel is going to be named Hotel Fauna. And what’s interesting about the town of Bedford is that it’s a very small town in Virginia, but it is known for a group called the Bedford Boys. And they were a group of men that left the town of Bedford for World War II. And they all died on D-Day. And because the town only had 7,000 people at the time, it was the largest loss for a community per capita in all of World War II. And so it sort of almost even really felt today. And so the entire community, the US D-Day Memorial, is located in Bedford. And so the whole community kind of really acknowledges and is tied to this story. And so we had this really interesting opportunity to want to celebrate the fact of this sort of historic moment from this town and also bring an interesting boutique experience. There isn’t really any boutique lodging in this community. And so with the Hotel Fauna, we wanted to really lean into more the natural elements like — the Appalachian Trail is right there. And you’re really in the kind of the beautiful mountains. And then also weave in elements of the Bedford story. So for instance, the gymnasium at the school, hosted the last dance before the Bedford Boys went off to war. They had this community dance and there’s a plaque outside of the gym. And so we’re thinking about ways to incorporate that. Like I want to do an annual dance in the gymnasium kind of as a sort of honor and remember and celebrate the Bedford Boys. So I’m really excited about that project. I think it’s really neat and unusual. And so that’s sort of some elements we’ve been thinking about as we’ve been working on that property.
Karen Stephens – 00:11:45: Wow, that is so cool. So I’m going to keep pulling on this thread if that’s okay, because now we know how we get a former school to a boutique hotel. I love the story there. Can you also talk about how you think about a marketing strategy now as that property starts to come to life? So you’ve got a collection of hotels. They’re all bespoke. They’re all unique. Can you talk to us a little bit about how you market the new hotel, what your approach is there? And then I’m also just curious to know if you’re tapping into any of the other guests who might have stayed at some other properties, even though they’re not the same experience, if that makes sense.
Bree Brostko – 00:12:19: Yes. No, I mean, I think that’s such a great point. We are very fortunate that we have this portfolio of boutique hotels in Virginia and people are staying at them for different reasons. But clearly, our guest profile is someone who’s more interested in the boutique experience. And so we do do cross-property marketing. We try to be very thoughtful and purposeful about those types of communications because we certainly don’t want to be overburdening any guests. But we think it’s a great opportunity to sort of activate this population that’s already expressed interest. In terms of marketing a new property, I think obviously so much research and so much data goes into who’s coming to this area. Who is a potential visitor? This property specifically that I’m speaking to, we think is probably going to be a lot of a drive market. In Virginia, you often want to activate the DC metro area because that’s a huge population center that’s interested in getting outdoors. We do a lot of studies about, “What are the value propositions of our property?” and “Who are our guests?” and “What is that guest profile?” So because of our boutique hotels, we don’t have unlimited dollars or unlimited spend. And even in the digital marketing space, we have to be very thoughtful and purposeful because we just can’t afford to appeal to everyone. So creating those guest personas are so important for us. And so for this property specifically, there’s a large active component. I mentioned the Appalachian Trail. There’s also a huge bike-riding community that comes to that area to do road races and general riding. So that’s an area of interest for us. There’s also a very large population of people who come and do frisbee golf there. So it’s like really interesting active population that we’re looking at attracting. And so that certainly informs some of our decisions. We’re thinking about the guest who’s arriving, and maybe they’re planning on spending time outdoors. “Where are our water bottle refilling stations instead of having plastic bottles on hand?” “Will guests have muddy shoes from being on the Appalachian Trail? What’s the sort of guest room entry experience like, and how do you accommodate for that?” So really getting into those guest personas are really important for us. The other thing that we do at Retro that we’re very proud of is focus on local, and community partnerships. We feel like that’s one of the values of a boutique hotel, right? People want to be experiencing a place and feeling like they know that place. And so we have this great head of marketing, in partnerships named Katie on our team. And she’s sort of amazing about getting into the community and working with the property to create those partnerships, whether it be with like Amtrak or a local bourbon company or what have you to bring those experiences into the property. And that’s something that we really lean into with those partnerships as well.
Karen Stephens – 00:15:09: Yeah, which is such a great idea. I mean, we’ve heard this a lot on the podcast that it’s way beyond the hotel at this point. It’s about your local experiences. It’s about what else is happening in the community. What can I do on my vacation? I love it that you’re personalizing for people with muddy shoes, and who are not gonna appreciate a plastic water bottle. They’re gonna want that refill station. I love that. Let me ask you, so what are the digital touch points you use or what are the channels that you leverage that are most effective for you to stay in touch with all of these guests? And also really, as you’re saying, make sure that they understand what the local attractions are. So how do you think about that from a marketing perspective?
Bree Brostko – 00:15:46: Absolutely. But I’m a huge revenue brand advocate. And I think that at a certain point in my career, I feel like some people were kind of less excited about email marketing. Sort of everyone felt like, “Oh, we’ve been doing this for a while. There’s something else.” But I feel like in the numbers that we see consistently are that email continues to be one of our best communication tools. From open rates, from engagement, basically across every metric, email continues to perform for us. And so one of the things that we certainly do, obviously we’re looking at other channels, and we’re leveraging text and trying to play in any sort of new, interesting digital space, but really leaning into this product that we use through Revinate and making sure that we’re continuing to touch the guests before their arrival to give them those nuggets to surprise and delight them or things to look forward to. One of our properties in Richmond has this amazing art gallery and the exhibits change every six, to eight weeks. And it’s such a great opportunity. The gallery is attached to the hotel and it’s a wonderful experience to be able to check this out and see local and regional artists. And so we really lean into the art and the art gallery to be sort of doing a drip campaign to people who have already booked, letting them know about who the artist is that’s displaying. Here’s some examples of their art and this is the hours of the art gallery. So making sure that they’re getting excited about the trip. Thinking about how to — things they might want to do while they’re on site. So we lean into email quite heavily.
Karen Stephens – 00:17:19: I love that. I think the other point that you’re making as well is that there’s the marketing aspect where you’re trying to drive bookings and revenue, which is obviously very important. But the guest experience from the booking on, all of the communications that you can do pre-arrival to get people excited. It’s like the stay starts before the stay and the ramp-up to that.
Bree Brostko – 00:17:39: You’re exactly right. Like, I think from the minute you get that confirmation email, that it has started. You’ve almost had an opportunity to lose it before someone even arrives, right? Depending on the quality of the communication. And so, yes, absolutely. I think I find all of our guests are savvy consumers. Everyone’s experiencing other online purchases, and sort of living their lives, expecting to interact with brands that they are interested in or want to learn more. And so we want to make sure that we’re delivering just as well as any other product they’re purchasing.
Karen Stephens – 00:18:12: Yeah, I’d love that. So your role at Retro, I mentioned in the intro, you were the Chief Marketing Officer, and now you’ve transitioned to the Chief Operating Officer and Head of Brand Strategy, which is such an awesome transition. But can you tell me, has there been any change to your approach to communication and marketing strategy now that you’re on this side of the house? Or does it all kind of come together? What has your journey been like personally making that transition?
Bree Brostko – 00:18:35: Such a good question, Karen. Short answer is yes. One of the reasons I made this transition is that through our organization, we saw a need to have this role that could be really focused on maximizing revenue for our owners, and making sure we’re appropriately staffed, and all of our properties are getting the resources that we need. But I will say that often when you’re in a marketing role or communications role or a public relations role, sometimes, I mean, the feedback I’ve gotten sometimes is that people always feel like I’m just spending money, right? “Like you’re just spending money. Where’s the ROI? You just, always want more money.” Which was true for excellent reasons, but being more in this operations role and sitting with the number so much more, I have become so much more of a critic or take a critical eye to spending kind of across the board. I think really pushing our team to say, “Well, that’s a great idea. What is the ROI? How long till we see that?” Like stress testing it a lot more, and really thinking about it through the lens of our owners. “Here’s a spend. How long will it be, until they see the return on that or doing this brand or public relations push? Like how can we measure that?” And I think I’ve absolutely noticed a change in the way that I approach operations in general.
Karen Stephens – 00:19:53: Right. It sounds like with operations, you have to be able to cultivate stakeholder engagement for life because you’ve got owners, you’ve got your own exec teams to work with, and all of that. So that’s very interesting. I mean, do you have an example that comes to mind? Or if someone is out there thinking, “Okay, I’m new in the business, and I’m trying to reach my objectives, and I’ve got to get all of these other people engaged and on board.” So what is your approach to stakeholder engagement? And can you think of a good example of how that’s worked for you or an effective strategy?
Bree Brostko – 00:20:23: Earlier in my career, a couple of mentors had guided me to take accounting courses. As a marketer and a comms person, I steered very clear of accounting courses. And so when I was in grad school, getting a communications master’s, I decided to take some accounting courses as electives to really build that muscle, I guess. And one of the reasons that these mentors had guided me to do that was, they said, “Marketers and communications people speak a different language than the finance team. And throughout your whole career, you’re going to be needing to talk to them about money and investment and ROI. And if you’re basically coming to the table with a completely different vocabulary than this group of people that it’s going to be so important to communicate with, you’re doing yourself a disservice.” And so I did that. And I’m so very glad that I did because they were exactly right. Like being able to sit at the table through budget season or through finance meetings, and have a better understanding of where they’re coming from has really helped me. And I think it’s almost critical to do that. So that’s sort of my advice to everyone. And in this COO role, it’s even more important. Like I’m really leaning into that learning. And I’m so glad that I did that.
Karen Stephens – 00:21:43: I want to double down on that statement because I think a lot of our listeners are marketing professionals. They might be coming up in their career. You’ve had a great career in marketing. You’ve transitioned now, and you’re Chief Operating Officer. Bottom line — know your numbers. I mean, I bang on about net operating income, and I think business runs on dollars and cents. And I think sometimes when you’re on the marketing team, of course, we’re creative individuals, and we want to talk about brand identity and influence and how people, but you need to be able to translate how that impacts the business overall. So that is an awesome piece of advice.
Bree Brostko – 00:22:17: Yeah, thank you. I actually listened to the podcast that you did with the gentleman talking about NOI. And I thought his sort of point about there’s a, particularly in marketing and communications, you’re measuring all of these things. What is your website experience like? What’s your social media engagement? But he was right. Like at the end of the day, the NOI is what matters.
Karen Stephens – 00:22:35: It’s what matters. Yeah, that was Joe Pettigrew from EOS Hospitality. Great. So I have one last question for you. So where do you see hotels having their moment or spark of innovation? So is there anything that comes to mind that you’re seeing out there? And as we’re kind of coming into 2025, what are you seeing in terms of innovation or sparks of technology that are interesting for you?
Bree Brostko – 00:22:57: Yes, great question. Personally, I am very interested in the metaverse. I think that I certainly envision a day in which we’re using the metaverse to experience and book hotels. So I envision the next iteration being leveraging the metaverse. And I see a possibility where we can’t fathom having booked a hotel room without standing in the hotel room and physically seeing the space and seeing what would be out the window. And so I think we’re a ways from that. But I’m really interested in all of the technologies that are sort of steps in that direction, whether it be firms that provide sort of a 3D guest experience through public spaces, which is really popular on the group side. And so that type of technology is becoming more and more accessible. And so I’m really interested in that and want to make sure that we’re leveraging that because I do see a future in which we need to be sort of even more involved in that digital experiential meta-type realm. So I’m really excited about that.
Karen Stephens – 00:23:59: Yeah, that’s really interesting. Let’s see what happens. It’s kind of like the Grand Hotel being able to run into all the rooms, but from your living room. “What room type do I want? Where’s the balcony? Where’s the thing?” I love that. Well, hey, Bree, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been an awesome conversation. I appreciate it.
Bree Brostko – 00:24:14: Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Karen. I really enjoyed it.
Outro – 00:24:21: Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hotel Moment by Revinate. Our community of hoteliers is growing every week, and each guest we speak to is tackling industry challenges with the innovation and flexibility that our industry demands. If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. And if you’re listening on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe for more content. For more information, head to revinate.com/hotelmomentpodcast. Until next time, keep innovating.
